Electronic device and its power control method
First Claim
1. An electronic device comprising at least a transceiver and a physical layer which transmits and receives data to and from said transceiver, said electronic device communicating with another electronic device via a bus to which said transceiver is connected, wherein said physical layer comprises means to control a mode of operation of said transceiver based upon a state of operation of said physical layer, said physical layer comprises:
- one or more transmission/reception ports;
a state machine circuit which controls transition of state for each port, said state being among a disconnected state, a suspended state which is the interrupted state, a resuming state which is a resuming process from said disconnected state or said suspended state to an active state and an active state; and
means which makes active a standby signal to output said standby signal, said standby signal being a control signal to instruct said transceiver connected to said transmission port to change into the lower power consumption mode, when a state of said transmission/reception port, state transition of said transmission/reception port being managed by said state machine circuit of said physical layer, is in the disconnected state, or when said transmission/reception port is changed into the suspended state in response to an instruction issued from another electronic device which is connected via said bus to said electronic device or from a higher level device of said electronic device.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
To provide an interface device and method of controlling power to achieve reduction in power consumption by presetting the transceiver in the standby state. When the physical layer (PHY) 10 makes a transition to a low power consumption mode, a standby signal (standby) for instructing the optical transceiver 30 to preset it into the low power consumption mode is brought into active and is output thereto. When the optical transceiver receives said standby signal, it is brought into the standby mode which is the low power consumption mode.
31 Citations
22 Claims
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1. An electronic device comprising at least a transceiver and a physical layer which transmits and receives data to and from said transceiver, said electronic device communicating with another electronic device via a bus to which said transceiver is connected, wherein said physical layer comprises means to control a mode of operation of said transceiver based upon a state of operation of said physical layer, said physical layer comprises:
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one or more transmission/reception ports; a state machine circuit which controls transition of state for each port, said state being among a disconnected state, a suspended state which is the interrupted state, a resuming state which is a resuming process from said disconnected state or said suspended state to an active state and an active state; and means which makes active a standby signal to output said standby signal, said standby signal being a control signal to instruct said transceiver connected to said transmission port to change into the lower power consumption mode, when a state of said transmission/reception port, state transition of said transmission/reception port being managed by said state machine circuit of said physical layer, is in the disconnected state, or when said transmission/reception port is changed into the suspended state in response to an instruction issued from another electronic device which is connected via said bus to said electronic device or from a higher level device of said electronic device. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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- 3. An electronic device comprising at least a transceiver and a physical layer which transmits and receives data to and from said transceiver, said electronic device communicating with another electronic device via a bus to which said transceiver is connected, wherein said physical layer comprises means to control a mode of operation of said transceiver based upon a state of operation of said physical layer, said electronic device further comprises means which transmits a low speed tone signal having pulse components, the frequency of said pulse components being lower than a predetermined value as a tone signal which is transmitted for monitoring connection between said electronic device and another device which is connected thereto through a bus when said physical layer is in a low power consumption mode.
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6. An electronic device comprising at least a transceiver and a physical layer which transmits and receives data to and from said transceiver, said electronic device communicating with another electronic device via a bus to which said transceiver is connected, wherein said physical layer comprises means to control a mode of operation of said transceiver based upon a state of operation of said physical layer, wherein said physical layer of said electronic device transmits a resuming signal to said bus when said physical layer changes to a resuming state which is a resuming process from a low power consumption mode,
said transceiver of said electronic device which has received said resuming signal which is transmitted to said bus from another electronic device connected to said bus notifies the physical layer of said electronic device of the detection of said resuming signal when said transceiver detects said resuming signal at its signal detecting circuit, said physical layer of said electronic device changes to the resuming state which is a resuming process from said low power consumption mode in response to said notification of said signal detection and makes inactive the standby signal which is a control signal to instruct said transceiver of said electronic device to change into the low power consumption mode and outputs the standby signal; - and
said transceiver of said electronic device changes to an active state from an standby state which is the low power consumption mode on receipt of said inactive standby signal by said transceiver, wherein in said resuming state which is the resuming process from the low power consumption mode, said electronic device outputs a continuous signal as said resuming signal to said bus for the another electronic device connected to said electronic device via the bus without transmitting a tone signal for initialization.
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7. An electronic device comprising at least a transceiver and a physical layer which transmits and receives data to and from said transceiver, said electronic device communicating with another electronic device via a bus to which said transceiver is connected, wherein said physical layer comprises means which brings said transceiver from normal operation mode into low power consumption mode when said physical layer is in the low power consumption mode, wherein said physical layer of said electronic device transmits a resuming signal to said bus when said physical layer changes to a resuming state which is a resuming process from a low power consumption mode, said transceiver of said electronic device which has received said resuming signal which is transmitted to said bus from another electronic device connected to said bus notifies the physical layer of said electronic device of the detection of said resuming signal when said transceiver detects said resuming signal at its signal detecting circuit,
said physical layer of said electronic device changes to the resuming state which is a resuming process from said low power consumption mode in response to said notification of said signal detection and makes inactive the standby signal which is a control signal to instruct said transceiver of said electronic device to change into the low power consumption mode and outputs the standby signal; - and said transceiver of said electronic device changes to an active state from an standby state which is the low power consumption mode on receipt of said inactive standby signal by said transceiver, wherein said electronic device comprises means which transmits a low speed continuous signal having a speed lower than a specified value for a predetermined period of time from the beginning of said continuous signal when said electronic device transmits to said bus the continuous signal forming said resuming signal for the another electronic device connected to said electronic device via the bus.
- View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
- 10. An electronic device comprising at least a transceiver and a physical layer which transmits and receives data to and from said transceiver, said electronic device communicating with another electronic device via a bus to which said transceiver is connected, wherein said physical layer comprises means to control a mode of operation of said transceiver based upon a state of operation of said physical layer, said physical layer of said electronic device terminates transmission of tone signal for monitoring bus connection to another electronic device connected to said electronic device via the bus when said physical layer of said electronic device is in a low power consumption mode.
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12. An electronic device comprising at least a transceiver and a physical layer which transmits and receives data to and from said transceiver, said electronic device communicating with another electronic device via a bus to which said transceiver is connected, wherein said physical layer comprises means to control a mode of operation of said transceiver based upon a state of operation of said physical layer, wherein a bus cable is removably inserted into a bus connecting connector of the transceiver of said electronic device, said transceiver being adapted to make a connector connection signal active to output said connector connection signal to said physical layer when said bus cable is connected to said connector;
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wherein said physical layer is adapted to transmit a connection monitoring tone signal via said transceiver to said bus on receipt of said connector connection signal which has changed from an inactive state to an active state when said bus cable is connected to said bus connecting connector of said transceiver of said electronic device; and wherein said electronic device comprises means which controls said electronic device to terminate transmission of the connection monitoring tone signal if a response signal to said connection monitoring tone signal which has been transmitted to said bus is not received, said transceiver of said electronic device being set to the standby state which is a low power consumption mode. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
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15. An electronic device comprising at least a transceiver and a physical layer which transmits and receives data to and from said transceiver, said electronic device communication with another electronic device via a bus to which said transceiver is connected, wherein said physical layer comprises means to control a mode of operation of said transceiver based upon a state of operation of said physical layer, wherein a bus cable is removably inserted into a bus connecting connector of the transceiver of said electronic device, said transceiver being adapted to make a connector connection signal active for outputting said connector connection signal to said physical layer when said bus cable is connected to said connector;
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said physical layer of said electronic device which has received a transition of said connector connection signal from inactive to active state output from said transceiver when said bus cable is connected to said bus connecting connector of said transceiver in said electronic device is adapted to change to a resuming state which is a resuming process from a unconnected state and to transmit a continuous signal which forms a resuming signal to said bus via said transceiver; and if there is no other electronic device which is to be connected to said electronic device via said bus, said physical layer of said electronic device changes to a suspended state which is a low power consumption mode and waits for the reception of the continuous signal which is transmitted on said bus from another electronic device to which said electronic device is connected.
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16. A method for controlling power of an electronic device, wherein said electronic device comprises at least a transceiver and a physical layer for performing the transmission/reception of data to/from said transceiver and said electronic device performing communication with another electronic device via a bus to which said transceiver is connected, said method comprising the steps of:
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bringing said transceiver into a low power consumption mode in response to a transition of said physical layer to the low power consumption mode, wherein said physical layer includes one or more transmission/reception ports, said transceiver being connected to one of said transmission/reception ports, a state machine circuit which manages the connection state in said physical layer is adapted to control the state transitions for each of transmission/reception port among a disconnected state which is the disconnected state, a suspended state which is the interrupted state, a resuming state which is a resuming process from said disconnected state or said suspended state to an active state and an active state; and a standby signal which is a control signal to instruct said transceiver connected to said transmission port to change into the lower power consumption mode is made active and is output, when said transmission/reception port, state transition of which is managed by said state machine circuit of said physical layer, is in a disconnected state, or when said transmission/reception port is changed into a suspended state in response to an instruction issued by a higher level device of said electronic device or another electronic device being connected to said transceiver of said electronic device via said bus.
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17. A method for controlling power of an electronic device, wherein said electronic device comprises at least a transceiver and a physical layer for performing the transmission/reception of data to/from said transceiver and said electronic device performing communication with another electronic device via a bus to which said transceiver is connected, said method comprising the steps of:
bringing said transceiver into a low power consumption mode in response to a transition of said physical layer to the low power consumption mode, wherein a low speed tone signal having pulse components, the frequency of said pulse components being lower than a specified value is transmitted as a tone signal for monitoring connection between said electronic device and another device which is connected thereto through said bus when said physical layer in said one electronic devices is in the low power consumption mode.
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18. A method for controlling power of an electronic device, wherein said electronic device comprises at least a transceiver and a physical layer for performing the transmission/reception of data to/from said transceiver and said electronic device performing communication with another electronic device via a bus to which said transceiver is connected, said method comprising the steps of:
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bringing said transceiver into a low power consumption mode in response to a transition of said physical layer to the low power consumption mode, wherein a continuous signal having a rate lower than a specified value, for a predetermined period of time from the beginning of said continuous signal when the continuous signal which forms a resuming signal is transmitted to another electronic device connected to said one of the electronic devices when the physical layer of one electronic device is in a resuming state which is in the resuming process from the suspended state which brings the low power consumption mode; and wherein said transceiver of said another electronic device notifies said physical layer of said another electronic device of the signal detection when said transceiver of said another electronic device detects the reception of said low speed continuous signal at the signal detecting circuit which detects said low speed continuous signal. - View Dependent Claims (19)
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20. A method for controlling power of an electronic device, wherein said electronic device comprises at least a transceiver and a physical layer for performing the transmission/reception of data to/from said transceiver and said electronic device performing communication with another electronic device via a bus to which said transceiver is connected, said method comprising the steps of:
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bringing said transceiver into a low power consumption mode in response to a transition of said physical layer to the low power consumption mode, wherein a bus cable is removably inserted into a bus connecting connector of the transceiver of said electronic device, the method comprising the steps of; said transceiver making a connector connection signal active to output said connector connection signal to said physical layer when said bus cable is connected to said connector; said physical layer transmitting a connection monitoring tone signal via said transceiver to said bus in response to a transition of said connector connection signal from an inactive state to an active state when said bus cable is connected to said bus connecting connector of said transceiver in said one of electronic devices; and if a response signal to said connection monitoring tone signal which has been transmitted to said bus is not received in one electronic device, transmission of the connection monitoring tone signal being terminated and said transceiver of said one of the electronic devices being set to the standby state which is the low power consumption mode. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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22. A method for controlling power of an electronic device, wherein said electronic device comprises at least a transceiver and a physical layer for performing the transmission/reception of data to/from said transceiver and said electronic device performing communication with another electronic device via a bus to which said transceiver is connected, said method comprising the steps of:
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bringing said transceiver into a low cower consumption mode in response to a transition of said physical layer to the low power consumption mode, wherein a bus cable is removably inserted into a bus connecting connector of the transceiver of said electronic device, said transceiver being adapted to make a connector connection signal active for outputting said connector connection signal to said physical layer when said bus cable is connected to said connector; said physical layer of said electronic device, in response to a transition of said connector connection signal from an inactive state to an active state, said connector connection signal being output from said transceiver when said bus cable is connected to said bus connecting connector of said transceiver in said electronic device, changes to a resuming state which is the resuming process from an unconnected state and transmits a continuous signal which forms a resuming signal to said bus via said transceiver; and if there is no other electronic device which is to be connected to said electronic device via said bus, said physical layer of said electronic device changes to the suspended state which is the low power consumption mode and waits for the reception of the continuous signal which is transmitted on said bus from the other electronic device to which said electronic device is connected.
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Specification